Cigarette smoking and anti-smoking counseling practices among physicians in Wuhan, China

Purpose - The paper seeks to report data on cigarette smoking, anti- smoking practices, physicians' receipt of anti-smoking training, and the association between receipt of the training and anti-smoking practice among physicians in Wuhan, China. Design/methodology/approach - Participants were selected through the stratified random sampling method. The questionnaires were completed by the sampled physicians and the response rate of the survey was 98.1 percent. Findings - Among the total sample, 11 percent were current smokers. Significantly more male physicians than female physicians were current smokers (31.6 vs 0.9 percent, p, 0.001). In total, 41 percent of physicians always or often asked patients about smoking habits, and 61 percent of them often advised patients to quit. Receiving anti-tobacco training significantly increased the likelihood for physicians to ask patients about smoking (odd ratio = 2.55, p, 0.001) and to advise patients against smoking (odd ratio = 4.05, p < 0.001) with and without controlling gender, age, education, type of hospital and medical services specialty. Practical implications - More effort should be devoted to training for physicians with focus on anti-smoking practice and smoking cessation counseling in addition to assist physicians themselves to quit smoking. Originality/value - The findings of this study update the data regarding cigarette smoking among physicians in Wuhan, China, and their practice of anti- tobacco counseling. It indicates that it is very important to provide the training regarding anti- smoking counseling among physicians.